The choir sang hallelujah as the congregation of 15,000 clapped and sang along. Reverend James Meeks ratcheted up the intensity of his speech. “Man looks at the outside,” he shouted rearing his head back. “But God looks at your heart! Are you with me here?”

Judging by the response, Meeks had the faithful at Salem Baptist Church hanging on his every word.“One hundred percent with Reverend Meeks,” said parishioner Eugene Harris outside the mega-church on Chicago’s fiercely Democratic South Side.

Meeks is careful not to preach politics from the pulpit. That doesn’t mean he does not have a political side. This former state senator is active as a leader in Chicago’s African-American community and also has considerable political clout.

This gubernatorial election he is not throwing that clout behind the Democrat, incumbent Governor Pat Quinn. Instead, Meeks is lining up behind Bruce Rauner, the wealthy Republican businessman from Chicago’s predominantly-white North Shore.

I cant find anything about this 11+ hour story on any Chicago or Illinois websites/publications.. How REAL can this story be if CHICAGO isnt covering itself???? Fox News??? LOL.. What are the propaganda laws? Oh, I will accept that Fox is “breaking this news!!! and after 11 hours.. no one has anything else to say??? -right?

March 21, 2014 (CHICAGO) (WLS) — Some African American voters are abandoning their Democrat roots for the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois.

Is it a fleeting infatuation with Illinois’ new political face, Bruce Rauner, or do these Democratic defectors represent a crack in Governor Pat Quinn’s base?

When activist Bob Israel sees construction sites with few or no African American workers he blames Democratic elected officials and their trade union allies.

“I’m blaming the Democratic Party because they are being controlled by the unions and that’s why we are not working,” he said.

So on Tuesday night, Israel was among the disgruntled black Democrats who cheered the gubernatorial nomination of Republican Bruce Rauner.

“We’ve got a one-party system in Chicago and Illinois. We’ve got to break it up,” said Hermene Hartman, Ndigo.com publisher.

Online publisher Hartman says the black community’s high unemployment and total lack of economic development caused her this week to vote Republican for the first time.

“We’ve got to bring about some change. And you’re not going to change, if you don’t change,” he said.

Major Chicago black church leaders, all one-time Democrats, have endorsed Rauner, including the Reverend and former State Senator James Meeks, West Sider the Reverend Marshall Hatch and the South Side’s Reverend Stephen Thurston.

“I’m not looking at the party, I’m looking at the issues that are there,” Thurston said.

Governor Pat Quinn won over 90 percent of the city and Cook County’s black vote in 2010, when he won his first full term over Republican Bill Brady.

“He came into state government at a very difficult time,” said Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle.

Preckwinkle warned black voters that Rauner can make promises but has no answers.

“I think it’s all smoke and mirrors,” she said. “He’s going to face the same tough challenges as Pat does and there’s no magic solution.”

But Republican convert Bob Israel says Democrats have had their chance.

“We been drinking the Democratic Kool-Aid for 40 years and I don’t see no change,” he said.

Rauner was not the only Republican primary candidate to campaign extensively in Chicago’s African American community. Senators Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady also spent significant time there.

Persistent economic problems have put many black precincts up for grabs.

Oh..so it is OLD NEWS being sold as NEW NEWS.. gotcha. Sometimes you have to re-run something if it doesnt get the bump you hoped for.. I get it.

redastcyr

Even if you could ricciricci It wont matter majority Black folks are not buying what this fool is selling If in fact he is selling anything One thing about Black folks We no danger when we see it an Republicans are some dangerous folks That little change he got from them is not enough to sell his sole, along with everyone else He may get a few but that’s the end of his calling!!